Early risers on Virginia's Eastern Shore and beyond were able to see the exhaust trail from a Black Brant IX rocket launched at 6:15 a.m. Tuesday from NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Accomack County.

The 54-foot tall rocket was carrying two space technology development projects — the SOAREX-8 Exo-Brake Flight Test from NASA's Ames Research Center in California and the Radial Core Heat Spreader from NASA's Glen Research Center in Ohio.

The flight was conducted through NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate.

The rocket carrying its payload reached an altitude of 206 miles and the payload splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean around 164 miles off Wallops Island about ten minutes after launch.

The next launch from NASA Wallops Flight Facility will be a Terrier-Improved Malemute suborbital sounding rocket carrying the RockSat-X university student payload, scheduled to be launched early in the morning on August 11.